London Under Livingstone An evaluation of Labour's Mayor A new report from the Bow Group examines the track record of Ken Livingstone as London Mayor and uncovers rising taxes and worse public services. The research, released today, sees council taxes £300 higher in London than elsewhere in the UK driven by a 174% increase in the Mayor’s GLA precept. Meanwhile buses, tubes and violent crime have all deteriorated since Ken Livingstone took control.

The report claims that, including Transport for London, the Mayor of London has some 173 press officers on his payroll.

These media spinners have responded in a very NuLabour propaganda like manner, simply repeating their carefully chosen misleading statistics, some of which have been anticipated by the authors of the this report.

We were promised at least £60 million a year "profit" which could be plouighed back into improving public transport - that was when the charge was "only" £5 a day - it is now £8 a day.

Far from costing London £930m, the first full three years of operation in the central zone produced an income of £591.7 million with an operating cost of £288.6million - giving a net operating income of £303.1million.

Note the misleading spin weasel words "net operating income".

The actual figure quoted in the Bow Group report is a measly £10 million which is available to invest in improving public transport.

That is not even £10 million a year, that is £10 million in total since the inception of the scheme.

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